Natural gas supply planning: perspectives on the thematic literature landscape

Purpose This study aims to synthesize literature on the natural gas supply and distribution problem. Design/methodology/approach A novel text-mining-based systematic literature review approach is used. The approach involves developing a hierarchical taxonomy of the general gas supply problem and unearthing major literature themes using a text-mining-based topic modeling approach. The literature within respective themes is then analyzed based on the proposed hierarchical taxonomy. Findings This paper found seven major literature themes: demand planning, environment, sustainability, transportation planning, risk management and integrated power generation. The proposed taxonomy suggests several problem dimensions segregated by supplier and market side issues. The taxonomical analysis of the themes highlighted significant development tracks and major gaps. A consolidated conceptual framework is proposed, which offers a complete literature landscape. Research limitations/implications The proposed conceptual framework will guide future gas supply planning research. Originality/value It uses a novel text-mining-based analysis approach, which helps first unearth significant themes in the area, which are evaluated using a proposed problem taxonomy consolidated in the research guiding framework.